Sterling Investment Management LLC Purchases 63 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Sterling Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,070 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 63 shares during the quarter. Sterling Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,320,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. IFG Advisory LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. IFG Advisory LLC now owns 4,404 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,147,000 after purchasing an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC now owns 31,419 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $8,180,000 after purchasing an additional 522 shares during the last quarter. Columbia Trust Co 01012016 increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 14.3% in the fourth quarter. Columbia Trust Co 01012016 now owns 8,991 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,341,000 after purchasing an additional 1,128 shares during the last quarter. San Luis Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 17.6% in the fourth quarter. San Luis Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 16,159 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,207,000 after purchasing an additional 2,422 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PFG Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 12,362 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,218,000 after purchasing an additional 867 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,365,954.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 47,311 shares of company stock valued at $12,832,129. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Price Performance

V traded down $2.19 on Wednesday, hitting $278.41. 1,548,981 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,585,597. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $216.14 and a 12 month high of $290.96. The business has a 50-day moving average of $278.54 and a two-hundred day moving average of $258.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $511.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.00, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.55 billion. Visa had a net margin of 53.92% and a return on equity of 50.02%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.18 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 9th were issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.94%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Redburn Atlantic reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $307.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $309.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $296.00 to $306.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $295.82.

Visa Company Profile

Visa Inc operates as a payment technology company in the United States and internationally. The company operates VisaNet, a transaction processing network that enables authorization, clearing, and settlement of payment transactions. It also offers credit, debit, and prepaid card products; tap to pay, tokenization, and click to pay services; Visa Direct, a solution that facilitates the delivery of funds to eligible cards, deposit accounts, and digital wallets; Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral business-to-business cross-border payments network; Visa Cross-Border Solution, a cross-border consumer payments solution; and Visa DPS that provides a range of value-added services, including fraud mitigation, dispute management, data analytics, campaign management, a suite of digital solutions, and contact center services.